LSR 0.4.0

["Peter Parente" <parente gmail com>]

==============
* What is it ?
==============

The Linux Screen Reader (LSR) project is an open source effort to
develop an extensible assistive technology for the GNOME desktop
environment. The goal of the project is to create a reusable
development platform for building alternative and supplemental user
interfaces in support of people with diverse disabilities.

==================
* What's changed ?
==================

For users

* LSR now supports Braille output using the current development snapshot of
 BrlAPI 0.5.0. Basic input commands are also supported such as scrolling,
 touch cursor clicking, etc. Many options are available such as caret padding,
 scrolling behavior, custom ellipsis rendering, custom caret rendering, and
 dead Braille cell skipping. Thanks to Scott Haeger for his hard work in
 adding initial Braille support.
* Screen magnification is now available using the GNOME magnifier. All options
 supported by the magnifier are available in LSR's settings dialog. Additional
 features such as independent mouse, focus, and caret tracking and smooth
 panning are also configurable. Thanks to Eitan Isaacson for his efforts in
 supporting the GNOME magnifier.
* Supporting Firefox 3.0 (Minefield) remains a top priority. Item, word, and
 character navigation function properly on many pages. How to treat trivial
 elements is now user configurable. The next LSR release will focus heavily on
 the Firefox user experience.
* Cyclic commands are now supported. Press a hotkey once to get some
 information. Press it again to get more detailed information.
* Spelling and NATO phonetic spelling of words and characters is now available.
* Pronunciation of many unicode characters is now supported.
* Responsiveness is improved overall thanks to a more intelligent caching
 strategy.
* Color names and decimal values at the point of regard are now spoken.
* Table, list, tree, and menu headers, indices, and levels are now spoken.
* Word and character echo are now separate options.
* Information about an active text selection is now spoken.
* LSR has its first icon(s) thanks to James Stipp. The smaller icon is a simple
 box with the letters LSR to aid low-vision users in the identification of LSR
 windows. The large icon features the same letters plus a "Braille balloon"
 drawn on a 3D computer screen. The larger icon follows the Tango specs to fit
 the style of the GNOME desktop.
* Numerous bug fixes.

For developers

* You can register observers for changes on any Perk or device setting. The
 observer can take any action as a result of the setting change.
* Named Tasks can now be chained before and after one another much like they
 can be using the advice facility of elisp. This is how T.V. Raman's powerful
 Emacspeak system operates. In LSR, it enables a feature like the review
 commands to simply move the current point of regard, while Perks for specific
 devices (e.g. speech, Braille, magnifier) can tap into the review commands
 and provide the appropriate output after the move.
* A new color setting is available for user configuration and persistence.
* Defining settings for devices now involves only one class, rather than a
 default and a flyweight.
* Devices can be referenced by capabilities in addition to an exact name. This
 allows, for instance, a magnifier Perk to work with any available magnifier
 device assuming it provides some baseline set of features.
* The AEOutput base class now has only a generic send method which can be used
 to send arbitrary commands which a device may interpret as it sees fit. This
 more abstract base interface allows for a wider variety of device types.
* Basic audio and Braille interfaces are defined for future device support.
* The last pressed key code, key sym, and modifiers are available to Perks as
 extra information for correcting caret/text accessibility problems.
* Numerous bug fixes and documentation improvements to the core and tools API.

Translations

* dz(Pema Geyleg)
* es(Francisco Javier F. Serrador)

======================
* Where can I get it ?
======================

Source code release:
http://live.gnome.org/LSR#downloads

For more information, visit the LSR home page:
http://live.gnome.org/LSR